Alihankinta Subcontracting Trade Fair in Finland

The Alihankinta Subcontracting Trade Fair is Finland's leading industrial event and Europe's second largest industrial subcontracting fair. It is an event that showcases various innovations, including products, services, production methods and processes, materials and components - and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

For us it was the perfect place to keep up to date with the newest advancements in the industrial sector - we are always interested in innovations that could be beneficial in product development. And, of course, the fair was great for networking too.

Elmia Subcontractor 2022 in Sweden

Just like the trade fair in Finland, Elmia is focused on subcontractors. The 3-day event brings together thousands of like-minded people for knowledge sharing, innovative thinking and networking.

Let me tell you, this event was so inspiring - so many cool innovations. It was particularly interesting to hear about all the developments coming in the sustainability area. 

We also caught up with one of our previous vendors and had a good chat with them about using zinc vs aluminium in production, and found a couple of interesting companies to potentially collaborate with in the future as well.

Vendor visits and aluminium extrusion

But trade fairs weren't the only places we visited. We also visited our vendors - saw what they had been up to and learnt about the updates they had implemented.

For example, we visited one of our aluminium extrusion partners. We had a closer look at their production process and newest factory - you'd be amazed at how much can be automated. We also had the chance to meet their subcontractors and see different options for CNC profile machining, as well as have a closer look at how they paint 6m profiles - it is all quite impressive. Most importantly, we had a good productive discussion on how product development affects the price of the end product - how clever changes in the product design can bring big savings.